Children. Children everywhere. Tiny feet pitter patter by, accompanied by a screech matched only by that of a pterodactyl. Thus describes the soundtrack of my day.
This summer, I am working at my college's daycare to pay off my room and board for the upcoming semester. My station? The Blue Room. The two-year-old room. Normally, we have nine kiddos romping around, but today, luckily, we only have eight. This morning, we took the munchkins swimming. That, in itself, wasn't bad at all. I rather enjoyed it. It was the mess afterward that got me. We have one precocious child who we will call Joey. His parents forgot to pack him an extra pair of unmentionables for swim day, so he's currently commando. Also, his shorts are too big. Like, two sizes too big. I'm sure you're putting two and two together here. Joey's shorts keep falling down, and he, being the rambunctious little boy he is, simply kicks them off. But, he recognizes that his behavior is inappropriate, so he runs as far and as fast as he can away from the teachers. He's actually quite speedy.
Yesterday, he was angry because he didn't want to sit at the table for lunch. So what better way to avoid eating than to throw the plate of food onto the floor?
He also hates shoes. Joey is constantly kicking his shoes off, and when we try to get them back on, he kicks and screams and arches his back to repel our attempts. Sometimes it takes two teachers to hold this tiny toddler down. He seriously must have super strength. Or maybe it's just will-power.
Maybe someday, someone will figure out how to harness the sheer will-power of toddlers and use it for the greater good of the world. But today, we will simply learn to dodge it and fight back.